Donald Trump’s Hollywood Star Destroyed, Walk of Fame Blasts Attack

Trump with friends, in the heady days of peak 'Apprentice' fame. [Frazer Harrison, Getty Images][/caption]While there's no way to reverse time and un-experience what's been a truly draining presidential election, someone did attempt to eradicate the visual evidence of Donald Trump's impact on pop culture on Tuesday morning (October 26). A man obliterated Trump's Hollywood Walk of Fame star with a sledgehammer and a pickaxe, Deadline first reported — and the destruction of Trump's star was caught on video.

The vandal dressed as a Los Angeles city construction worker, and told Deadline his name was Jamie Otis (Otis conducted an interview about the incident with TMZ). He waged his attack on the former Apprentice host's star on at around 5:45 am PST, reducing the marker to rubble. Otis said that he originally meant to remove the star whole in order to auction it off, with the proceeds going to the women who've stepped forward with allegations of Trump sexually harassing them over the years. At least 11 people have come forward so far and as CNN reports, Trump said on October 22 that "every woman lied" and he plans to sue his accusers after the election.

But Otis soon found that Hollywood Stars are much harder to extract than they are to put in. The star, which Trump was awarded in 2007 for his work on NBC's then-smash show The Apprentice, is now more of a five-pointed rubble hole, but the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced that it will be restored within a few days.

"The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an institution celebrating the positive contributions of the inductees," Leron Gubler, President-CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce which maintains the Walk of Fame, wrote in a statement. "When people are unhappy with one of our honorees, we would hope that they would project their anger in more positive ways than to vandalize a California state landmark. Our democracy is based on respect for the law. People can make a difference by voting and not destroying public property."

Gubler insists the crime will be treated as a felony, and that both the Chamber and the police intend "to prosecute to the full extent of the law." No word on whether Trump has also added this to his long list of threatened litigation.

Critics reacted with amusement to the defacing, which was the most severe attack on Trump's star to date if not the first. It's been previously painted with a swastika and a mute symbol, and in July 2016, a street artist named Plastic Jesus surrounded it with a tiny wall. The latter was ostensibly in reference to the "impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful" Trump has promised supporters he'd build along the southern border with Mexico.

Meanwhile, while many of Trump's critics on Twitter intellectually agreed with Gubler's sentiments on the vandalism, some did admit to enjoying it. See a few reactions below.